AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Casja
“It’s him,” I said to Xira through gritted teeth as she hurried to meet my pace. “I should’ve known...”
“How do we know that for certain?” Xira asked. “This is dangerous. If we are wrong—“
“We are not wrong,” I replied. “Liltra worked in the fire rooms. She was courting Lanny, who worked for Lord Lugh. After the ball attack, Lanny was sick. He wouldn’t wake up.”
“That might all be true,” Xira said, her breathing raspy as we reached the stairs and started going down. “But it doesn’t mean—“
“But it does!” I stopped and turned to meet her gaze. She was a few steps above me, which made her tower over me in her usual beauty. I ignored it. “Lanny died a few days before Liltra. If it weren’t for the hook and the dirt, I would assume, like Seren had, that she killed herself because she couldn’t live without Lanny. But there is another, better explanation for it. They killed her after Lanny died because they feared she would tell on them. She had no reason to hide their crimes anymore. She was doing it all for Lanny and now that he was gone...”
“She didn’t have a reason to protect them,” Xira finished my thought. “That must be why Lugh threatened you.”
Of course. He had seen me talk to Seren at the hallway before coming up to me. He had called me a nuisance.
I nodded. “He was worried I would uncover their crime.”
“But... What crime? Why would they need Liltra to do something...”
I saw understanding in Xira as she abruptly stopped speaking. Her brows tightened as the realization came.
“Liltra worked in the fire rooms,” I said, lowering my voice to make sure no one could overhear us. “She knew how the monsters got in. She knew who let them inside, or perhaps she was the one who was instructed to break the boilers to let them climb up the river.”
“And that’s why they killed her,” Xira said.
“Yes,” I replied. “They probably used Lanny to get through to her. Lord Lugh got her killed because he was the one who let the monster’s in.”
“We can’t say it was him,” Xira started, but I interrupted her before she could go on. “Why would they do that?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, doubting it myself.
“After the ball,” Xira said. “The king decided to let the Unseelie kill the monsters on sight. How does that help Lugh?”
“That decree was suggested by Lord Merick,” I said, thinking out loud. “You would know this better than I do, but the lords and ladies of the realm probably felt like Lord Merick was saving them from the king’s stupidity.”
Xira’s brows raised. I wasn’t sure if she was shocked that I would dare to mention the word ‘stupid’ in the same sentence with the king or if she was taking in what I was saying.
“The king wanted to protect the monsters because he knows they’re innocent fae,” I continued. “The realm didn’t think that was wise, and that sentiment became even stronger after the ball attack. Lord Merick came out of all this as a logical leader who dared to do what needed to be done.”
“They also blamed Jasmine,” Xira suggested.
“Yes,” I said excitedly. “That was another mark against the king. He looked as though he was protecting the enemies of the Unseelie. When they caught Jasmine, his son and daughter were going to be blamed too.”
“And he sent them away to protect them,” Xira finished my thought. “So it worked. The attack worked to isolate the king. He lost support and he sent the heirs away to protect them. But what are they hoping to achieve by weakening the king? Lord Merick and his son, what would they gain from all this?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. My ears were buzzing. “But we must tell Orla that Lord Lugh and Lord Merick are behind Liltra’s murder. She will know what to do.”
Xira nodded.
“Let’s go,” she said.
My room was on the other side of the castle, so we had to walk through the wide hallways circling the halls to reach the passage leading into the King’s Tower. Whenever we saw fae, we stopped walking quickly and pretended to take a leisurely walk. I was afraid that Lord Lugh and his father would get news that their attempt to murder me had failed. If that happened, we would be stopped before reaching the king. Luckily, it was late at night, and the few fae who saw us did not seem suspicious as we passed them. We reached the king’s tower without being seen by anyone working with Lord Merick or Lugh.
There was no one guarding the entrance. Xira and I exchanged a glance. We were lucky. No one would stop us from entering the king’s tower this time, and we did not need Lady Queill to come and let us in.
We entered the dim-lit hallway and started climbing up the stairs.
“Should we go to Orla first?” Xira asked.
